Open-hearth furnace charging apparatus



May 9, 1950 T. e. LEWIS 2,506,797

OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE CHARGING APPARATUS F1186. Feb. 7, 1948 v 20 24 H F i f 4 4 //v VEN TOR 3 TUDOR 6. LEW/8 BY A TOR/V5 Y Patented May 9,

UNITED STATES PATENT o-FFlci APPARA TUS Tudor G. Lewis, Campbell, Ohio Application February 7, 1948, Serial No. 8,873

Claims (Cl. 214-26) This invention relates to apparatus for charging open hearth steel-making furnaces and the like and is particularly directed to apparatus for handling large bodies making up or included in the cold metal portion of an open hearth furnace charge such as bundles or bales of loose or small scrap, discarded or scrapped mill rolls and other relatively large objects of comparabl nature such as ingots or large chunks or bars of metal whether specially formed for charging into the furnace or otherwise produced.

Standard practice in the industry ha heretofore required loading all or substantially all the cold metal charge into charging boxes which are then delivered to the charging side of the furnace on cars or buggies running along rails paralleling its front, each box having a socket adapted to receive the head of a charging bar actuated by the charging machine by means of which the boxes are successively lifted from the buggies, projected through the furnace charging ports, inverted inside the furnace to discharge their contents on the hearth and after righting then returned to the buggies. Necessarily the boxes must be of a size capable of entering the furnace through the ports and also of heavy construction with thick walls to withstand normal service so that their volumetric capacity is limited by their wall thicknes and the size of the ports and is substantially less than might be the case if it were practical to employ boxes with relatively thin walls. As a corollary to this the sizes of bales, rolls, ingot and other large objects which may be charged into th furnace through the doors is likewise limited by the inside dimensions of the chargin boxes and it has therefore sometimes been the practice to lay large pieces aside until extensive repairs to the furnace are required and then to charge them through the top before the roof is completed, or else to reduce them to smaller pieces which can be accommodated in the charging boxes.

More specifically it has usually been feasible to charge in the normal way scrap either loose or else only in bales of not more than one or two tons in weight, and other objects not much if any larger than such bales, and as some modern furnaces have capacity for refining in a single charge 300 tons or more of metal it is apparent introduction of the charge in this way is a laborious and time consuming operation.

Moreover as each charging box before it is projected into the furnace must have the head of the charging bar lowered into the socket provided therefor at its end and be secured thereto as by the usual locking bar before it can be lifted from its buggy and then fully inverted in the furnace to discharge its contents onto the hearth, these further time consuming operations in the aggregate substantially prolong the time required for charging the furnace each time a new heat is started.

It is significant of recognition of the wastefulness of prolonged charging periods, during all or most of which of course the furnaces are not actively producing steel, that some mills have provided, necessarily at substantial expense, large numbers of buggies and charging boxes, and often at least one charging machine for each furnace in efforts to minimize the charging time, although most of such equipment is used only very little, if at all, during the major part of the furnace cycle including the melting, refining and tapping of the charge; the large amount of equipment thus supplied moreover necessarily leads to crowded conditions on the charging floor tending to aggravate the very factors its provision is designed to alleviate.

My invention is therefore directed primarily to the provision of means facilitating more rapid charging of an open hearth furnace, enabling a larger burden of metal to be introduced to the furnace on each operation of the charging machine, and simultaneously permitting each such operation to be completed in less time than has been possible with apparatus of the character just described.

A further object is to provide a, buggy of novel form for transporting components of the charge to the furnace and in combination therewith an improved peel the use of which facilitates rapid and efficient introduction into the furnace by the charging machine of the material carried by the buggy- A still further object is to provide novel means for connecting a peel or the like with the char ing bar of an open hearth furnace charging machine whereby the time required for making and breaking such connection may be reduced and the operation of the charging bar in lifting the peel from a buggy, projecting it into the furnace, discharging its load and returning it to the buggy is simplified and facilitated.

Other objects, purposes and advantages of the invention will hereafter more fully appear or be understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment of it, reference being had to the accompanying drawin in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and

Fig. 3 is an end view thereof partly in vertical 3 section, in which a conventional charging bar head is also shown in a typical pre-operative relation to the said apparatus.

In the several figures outlines of typical bales of scrap which may be charged into a furnace with the aid of my apparatus are indicated in dot and dash lines.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, the apparatus therein illustrated comprises two essential units, namely a buggy I and peels 2, 2, two of the latter normally being associated and employed with each buggy; of course the whole number of buggies and peels provided for each furnace is a matter of choice, but as will be apparent as the description proceeds the number required will be substantially less than the number of buggies and charging boxes of ordinary construction heretofore deemed necessary for acceptable furnace operation.

Buggy l as shown in the drawing comprises wheels 3, 3 mounted on axles 4 and supporting a body 5, the upper surface of which carries spaced upwardly projecting flat load-carrying abutments 6, 1, 8 defining troughs or beds 9, 9 the longitudinal center lines of which extend transversely of the body preferably between vertical planes of the respectively subjacent axes of wheels 3, 3'. Abutments B and 8 respectively support angular load guides [0, ll adjacent the ends of the buggy and the center abutment l likewise supports a comparable guide l2 having opposed downwardly divergent angular faces l3, [4 respectively cooperative with the angular faces l5, l6 of guides I0, I I to insure substantial centering over troughs 9, 9' of objects such as bales B which may be lowered onto the buggy by a crane or the like to rest on the abutments. End couplings l'l, broken away in the drawing, provide means for connecting a number of buggies together in a train in the customary way.

In each of troughs 9, 9' there is positioned one of the peels 2, 2' desirably identical and each comprising a platen 20 slightly rounded off at the upper corner of its free end and having at its other end an integral upstanding head 2| in the outer face 22 of which is formed a socket 23 undercut at its upper or closed end 24 and adapted to receive the head H of the charging bar of an ordinary open hearth furnace charging machine. If desired a locking bar may be supplied to the latter to engage slots 26, 26 on either side of the socket in the peel head, but usually it is unnecessary to lock the charging bar to the peel, and in the normal use of the apparatus such locking is not contemplated.

The operation of the apparatus just described will now be explained in further detail, it being understood that it is used in connection with an open hearth furnace having suitable rails on the charging floor enabling the buggy to be moved along the front of the furnace charging ports and a suitable charging machine movable along a parallel path more remote from the furnace on other preferably wider gage rails and equipped with a charging bar the head H of which conforms to sockets 23 of the peels. Usually the charging machine itself, through engagement of head H in socket 23 of one of the peels is used to move the buggies in front of the furnace and thus successively to align the materials to be charged with the furnace ports, and it will be evident that head H is operatively seated in socket 23 by an upward movement from below, rather than in reverse direction as in connecting it with a box having a conventional socket, and that the head itself, rather than a locking bar associated with the charging bar and the head, supports the weight of a peel when the latter is lifted by the bar.

Assuming the buggy has been properly loaded, as by lowering bales B of scrap or other objects to be charged onto it with the aid of a crane, hoist or the like and the buggy moved into place in front of the furnace, the charging bar head H is entered in socket 23 of the peel, if not already entered therein for the purpose of moving the bug y; then further upward motion of the bar lifts the peel from the bug y. the peel platen carrying bale B with it, and as the bar is next advanced axially the bale is introduced into the furnace through the port with which it is aligned. Now, by relatively slight rotative motion of the bar about its axis the peel is tilted to allow the bale to slide from it to the hearth, after which it is righted and replaced on the buggy by reverse operation of the charging machine, this sequence of steps being repeated as often as may be necessary to introduce the cold metal charge to the furnace, some constituents of the whole charge, such as molten metal and loose limestone, being unsuited to charging with the aid of this apparatus.

It will be apparent that by the use of my apparatus articles almost as wide and high as the ports in a normal furnace may be charged as for example bales of scrap 44" square and 6' long which may weigh up to 20,000 pounds each containing from five to ten times as much scrap as is customarily loaded in one charging box. Moreover as guides l0, H and I2 on the buggy insure proper positioning of the bales on the abutments 6, I and 8 with their centers of gravity substantially over or between the vertical planes of the axes of the buggy wheels, it is impossible for the bug y to tip over endwise even when carrying a bale or bundle only on one pair of abutments.

The said apparatus therefore permits a furnace to be charged more rapidly than heretofore, using fewer buggies and charging boxes and with substantially fewer operations of the charging machine, thereby enabling the furnace to be operated at maximum efficiency with minimum capital investment in auxiliary equipment, particularly where a number of neighboring furnaces are being operated concurrently; moreover reduction in the time the charging machine is required for each furnace enables one machine to adequately service a larger number of furnaces than heretofore so that fewer charging machines are required in the plant as a whole.

The crowded condition of many charging floors caused by the large number of buggies and charging boxes heretofore needed, and in some instances of charging machines as well, may thus be substantially alleviated by the employment of the apparatus of my invention, which therefore contributes materially to reduction of costs in the overall operation of the furnaces, while the durable character of the buggies and peels renders them substantially indestructible over a long period of useful service. Furthermore it may be noted that as the socket in the peel head which receives the head of the charging bar opens downward, rather than upward as in the usual charging boxes, and the charging bar head is entered thereinto on an upward motion which is continued to lift the peel and its burden from the buggy, there is no possibility of the socket becoming obstructed or clogged by loose pieces of scrap the platen having a socket adapted to lhead of chsrsi sbsr.

-accent? 2. Apparatus of the class described comprising a bu gy having longitudinally separated pairs of wheels, spaced load-carrying transversely extending abutments defining a, trough substantially reversed once when the peel is in the furnace to discharge its load and right it again, this operation requires the peel to be tilted to a maximum of only a few degrees from the horizontal, which obviously can be effected in a shorter time than either the full 360 rotation or 180 and return required for emptying charging boxes.

These several factors, in addition to elimination of necessity for utilizing and operating a locking bar, together with the ability of my apparatus to charge a greater weight of metal with each charging machine operation thus materially increase the number of tons of metal which may be charged in a given time by asingle machine and enable the furnace to complete its cycle more rapidly and so complete a given number of heats in less time than heretofore required. This and the savings efiected through reduction in the amount of capital invested in auxiliary equipment, combined with the more efficient use of the essential equipment provided contribute materially to economic operation of the steel making plant as a whole and afford increased production at reduced cost per ton of steel produced.

While I have herein described with considerable particularity one embodiment of the invention, it will be understood I-do not desire or intend thereby to restrict or confine myself in any way as changes and modifications in the form, structure and relationship of the several parts of my apparatus, in the dimensions thereof and in their mode of use will readily occur to those skilled in the art and may be made if desired without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, 1 claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. Apparatus of the class described comprising a buggy having longitudinally separated pairs oi wheels, spaced load-carry ng transversely extending abutments defining a trough substantially aligned with the axis of a pair of said wheels, and a peel comprising a platen adapted to lie in said trough with its upper surface below the plane of the load-carrying surface of the abutments and a head projecting above said plane at one end of receive the aligned with the axis of a pair of said wheels, and

a peel comprising a platen adapted to lie in said trough with its upper surfacebelow the plane of the load-carrying surface of the abutments and a head projecting above said plane at one end of the platen having a socket adapted to receive the head of a charging bar and defining substantially an inverted U-shaped cavity aligned with the longitudinal center line of the, platen.

3. In combination with a buggy comprising longitudinally spaced pairs of supporting wheels and transversely extending spaced load-supporting abutments defining troughs generally paralleling and vertically substantially aligned with the respective axes of said pairs of wheels, a peel removably seating in each trough, each peel comprising a platen substantially-filling the trough and an upstanding head integral with the platen at one end thereof having a charging bar head receiving socket open at its end adjacent the lower face of the platen and closed at its opposite end whereby by vertical upward movement the bar head may be seated in said socket for lifting the peel from the buggy.

' 4.A peel for an open hearth charging buggy comprising a flat platen adapted to extend transversely of the buggy, and ahead at one end of the platen having a charging bar head receiving socket closed at its upper end and open at its lower substantially in the plane of the bottom of the platen.

5. Open hearth furnace charging apparatus comprising a buggy having longitudinally separated pairs of wheels, spaced load-carrying transversely extending abutments defining a trough substantially parallel with the axis of a pair of said wheels, and a peel comprising a platen adapted to lie in said trough and a. head projecting above the plane of the platen surface at one end thereof having a socket adapted to receive the head of a charging bar.

' TUDOR G. LEWIS.

nnranancss crrnn The following references are of record in the file of this patent: f

Aug. 18, 1M0 

